Sunday I loaded the washer improperly, and our apartment flooded. We were all so tuned in to our devices that it wasn’t until I heard the dog splashing that we realized the rising water. The maintenance people were, as usual, fantastic; within 2 hours our apartment was dry, and we totally reorganized the place. Long story short, it was a surprise great day, a refreshing change from the recent string of grumpy ones. I’d like to blame it on the weather, but I think it might be the culmination of hectic schedules and/or the bad parenting catching up to us. Mine, not Joel’s, to be clear.

Because of the generalized craziness above, and the fact that I ended up with 15 residency interviews, November’s radiology elective has been quite a boon. My hours are ridiculously awesome right now. Good news, because kindergarten is no joke. Her school is probably about as good as they come, but I feel panicky every time I enter the place. Utter chaos. I want to be more involved, but this may require tranquilizers. Having her officially enrolled in school and looking at the next 12 years of it kind of feels like… prison? Is that too dramatic? If so, I may have caught it from Zoe. Drama ERRWHERE. I had no idea kids this age are already lying, conniving, stealing, snitching, boundary-less scoundrels. We had it so easy. I can honestly say I never had that feeling of wanting to put her in a bubble until now. She’s so sweet and sharing – they don’t let her eat her food at lunch! We ate with her last week, and it’s like the hands come out of nowhere to swipe food directly from her lunch box. She’s also totally overwhelmed with requests to play at recess and honestly seems miserable sometimes. I’m hoping we can help her develop some healthy boundaries and feel terrible that we didn’t prepare her well. There are definitely sweet kids in the class; I’m just blown away by the depravity so far, the likes of which I hadn’t expected for at least 5 more years. It’s not like she has been at home this whole time, either. Apparently the med center is more of a bubble than I realized.

So there’s that. I also think she’s bored. It may sound like bragging, and maybe it is, but she’s reading at a third grade level among some kids who are still solidifying the alphabet, and I’m sure every stage in between. Which is fine, but with an overfull class I think she ends up with a lot of idle time. The testing begins in a couple of weeks for the gifted/talented program, so maybe next semester will be different. In hindsight I might have pursued the advanced programs prior to kindergarten had I realized how this all goes. “But Blake,” you’re saying, “some kids are starving or terminally ill or forever mentally 5 months old. Why is your kid being smart a problem?” I know. But my baby isn’t happy and I want to fix it for her.